Never Leave Me Again
by stuckbeingrachel
Summary: "I thought I lost you." she sighs. "You can't lose me, Mara." he smiles. "Never leave me again," she whispers, kissing his forehead and resting hers on his. "please." "Never." he promises, looking into her eyes. Mara never knew this part of the story... 3rd Genre: Drama, 4th Genre: Friendship. I don't own House of Anubis or the characters! R&R! Hope y'all like it!


**I went through it and fixed some grammar mistakes!**

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"Junior, have you seen Poppy?" Jerome asks Eddie, falling into step with him as they walked down the halls of the school.

"Yeah," Eddie nods. "Tall, long, straight, dirty-blonde hair, greenish-blue eyes—"

"Recently," Jerome cuts him off, not wanting to play his games. He'd been looking for Poppy all morning. Her friends hadn't seen her. Mara hasn't spoken to her. Nina hasn't seen her. She never showed up for any of her classes. And though she was a mini version of Jerome she would never ditch school. It was like she dropped off the face of the earth.

"Well, last time I saw her it was last night and she was looking for you, which you weren't there, so she left. Twenty minutes later some lady comes in and tells me she's leaving with her." Eddie shrugs. "Oh, and she told me to tell you, she's doing fine."

"Who's doing fine?" Jerome stops him by grabbing his elbow, pulling him to a halt.

"Your mom." he replies, ripping out of the blonde's grasp.

"She went home?" Jerome shouts, which makes everyone in the hallway look at him and Eddie, as he grabs the punk's shoulders and shakes him roughly.

"Woah, dude, calm down; who cares if she goes home—its home."

Jerome's arms drop to his side limply and he freezes, a terrified expression plastered on his usually proud face.

Mara smiles at the boys hopping up to them. "Hello, Jerome. Hi, Eddie,"

"Do you know what's up with him?" Eddie motions to Jerome who still hasn't moved.

"Jerome? Jerome, are you alright?" she asks, placing her hand on his now slightly trembling arm.

He was paralyzed with fear, his eyes wide and the corners of his mouth turned down in a deep frown. His whole body was going limp; he couldn't feel his arms or legs. His knees were about to give out underneath him as Alfie walked up behind him and slapped him on the shoulder. Jerome fell to his hands and knees before Alfie could greet him or Eddie could catch him.

"Woah, mate, I'm sorry. Are you okay?" Alfie knelt down next to him.

Jerome grabs his friend's shirt and pulls him forward until they were nose-to-nose. At first Mara thinks he going to strangle him until Jerome says in a low, shaky voice,

"Arthur has Poppy."

By this time the students in the hallway had circled around them, including the Anubis House teens.

"What do you mean 'Arthur has Poppy'?" Alfie scoffs.

"I mean, 'Arthur has Poppy'."

"Jerome, what's going on?" Nina asks, kneeling down next to the worried Mara as Jerome let Alfie go.

"I have to get home!" Jerome ignores her. He shoots up and runs to the door.

"Jerome, you can't go alone! Let's call the police!" Alfie calls after him.

Jerome stops in the doorway and turns to him sharply. "Don't include them." he warns and disappears through the door.

The teens disperse, dropping the recent events and the Anubis residents turned to Alfie with worried looks.

He looked at them and then at the door Jerome had just gone through, torn. He reached forward and grabbed Mara's hand pulling her down the hall, mumbling a quick, 'Come with me'.

"Alfie, what's wrong? Why'd Jerome run off like that? And who's Arthur?" Mara lists her questions as he pulled her across campus quickly.

He hung up his phone after he called for a taxi and stopped at the edge of the road, turning to her.

"I'll explain on the way," he tells her as a yellow cab drives up to them. "But right now, we need to focus on stopping Jerome from making a big mistake."

They hop in and Alfie tells the driver where to go. Mara turns to the dark-skinned boy fully to give him all of her attention.

"You know how his parents had left him at Anubis and didn't come back right?" he asks.

Mara nods.

"Well, they did come back. At least his mum did. When Poppy was four. But his dad hadn't come, he was gone, he and Jerome's mum had gotten a divorce after Poppy was born. He didn't know about the divorce until his mum had come to pick him up, with _Arthur._" he sneered, the name, as if it was a disease. "Arthur was a drinker, a drug addict and a smoker but Mrs. Clarke didn't seem to mind. She married him a couple months after she divorced Mr. Clarke."

Mara listened intently, wanting to know every detail. She was confused as to why Jerome had acted like that, and in front of the entire school. He's never done that. He's always been so proud. And when he had that flash of fear in his ice blue eyes, instead of covering it like he always did with emotions, it stayed there, he made no effort to hide it, and it frightened Mara. That wasn't her Jerome. _Her _Jerome…

She shakes her head as a way for her to scold herself for losing focus and nods for Alfie to continue.

Alfie takes a deep breath and starts the next part of the story, "They took Jerome home and he was confused. Joan, Jerome's mother, left for a bit, leaving Jerome and Poppy under the evil eye of Arthur Hanson. He told Jerome to get him a drink as he lounged on the couch with a cigarette in his mouth. Jerome didn't know what Arthur was capable of and said to get it himself. Arthur told him never to say no to him again. Arthur didn't care about Jerome or Poppy." he ran a hand over his face. "Jerome didn't listen to him the next ten times he ordered him to get him a drink. Arthur got tired of the argument and got his drinks himself. He had more than he should have, as Jerome sat there watching Poppy color on the couch next to Arthur, Arthur held his cigarette out to Poppy and she took it. She was about to put it in her mouth when Jerome grabbed it, threw it to the ground and stomped on it. Arthur got fed up with him and began cursing at him.

"Jerome was only nine when Arthur had beaten him for the first time. He was drunk then, but even when he was sober he still beat him whenever he came back home. His mum came home to him beating him and didn't do anything. Jerome was screaming at him to stop when his mother joined in on the beating."

Mara gasped, tears stinging her brown eyes.

"When Poppy turned six they started beating her too but Jerome took most of it protecting her. He was glad when they decided to send him back to school and not bring him home again. But he knew they'd keep beating Poppy and didn't want to. He got a beating the night before he left and never trusted anyone again after that—except for me and…you."

"Oh, my, gosh, Jerome," Mara sighs, placing a hand on her heart as a piece of it is ripped from her chest.

"Poppy never got a worse beating than Jerome did and when she came to school he was both glad and worried."

"Why was he worried?"

"Poppy's a miniature version of Jerome," Alfie chuckles, then he frowns pulling his phone out of his pocket. "I need to call the police."

Mara turned to look out the window as they drove down the road. The sky was filled with grey and black clouds, not a drop of sunlight. The formations gave the perfect setting to the situation and it made Mara want to burst into tears. But she had to stay strong and pay attention to the problem at hand, but it just made her want to cry more.

What if Arthur beat both Jerome and Poppy? She wouldn't be able to deal with that. Poppy was like the younger sister she never had and Jerome was…Jerome…

She couldn't lose Jerome; she wouldn't be able to live with herself for letting him run out of the school. He could be lying on the floor, nearly dead right now, and she couldn't do anything. A sob escapes her lips and she closes her eyes, then everything went black as she fell into a restless, dreamless slumber.

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"Mara," Alfie shakes her.

"Wha—" her eyes flutter open. She sees bright red and blue lights flashing in front of her, chattering and radio static. She sits bolt upright and looks around her. She was in the cab, right in front of Jerome's house.

"Joan and Arthur were arrested and are on their way to prison. We can't see Jerome and Poppy yet, but—Mara!" he yells as she zooms to the house. She tries to run inside but a large, young officer stops her.

"I'm sorry, miss, but you can't go in just yet." he says in a comforting voice.

"No, you don't understand, I'm his girlfriend, I need to see him now!" she protests, side stepping him. She runs through the house and stops short when she hears quiet sobs coming from the room to the right. She peeks around the corner and spots Poppy on her knees, letting the paramedics inspect her. Her cheeks were stained with tears and more were coming, though Mara could tell she was doing her best to keep them at a minimum. Mara runs to her side and whispers soothing words into the girl's ear when she leaned her head on Mara's shoulder. She had a cut lip, both cheeks red, bruises up and down her arms and legs. It broke Mara's heart to see her like this.

"Jerome's…in his…room…" Poppy wheezed pointing to the hallway.

Mara nods and gets up slowly, kissing Poppy on the head quickly. She speed walks down the hall and stops short at the tall, broad man standing in a door way. She peeked over his shoulder and saw paramedics surrounding something—or someone. She tries to move past the man but he doesn't budge from his position.

"Please let me through," Mara begs, tears stinging her eyes again.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," he says in a deep gruff voice with a thick Irish accent.

"Jerome!" Mara calls over the tall man's shoulder. "Jerome!"

"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to keep your voice down." he shushes her.

"And I'm going to have to ask you to move aside." she glares up at him.

The man stood his ground and she growls. "Jerome! Jerome! Jerome!" she screams.

The man stares down at her before leaning down, putting his large arm around the backs of her legs and flips her onto his shoulder. She screams and cries, hitting his back as hard as she could, as he began to walk down the hall.

"Mara?" a faint voice asks.

"Jerome?" Mara calls.

"Where is she? Let her in!" he says in a raspy voice.

"Now, son—" one of the paramedics start.

"Let me see her!" he growls.

The large man lets Mara touch the floor and she runs into the room as the paramedics march out.

"Jerome?" she falls to her knees and grasps his hand tightly in hers.

"Hey, Jeffray." he smirks up at her.

She lets out a combination of a laugh and a sob. Even when he's bloody and bruised, he was still giving her that evil, mischievous, sexy smirk, the one that was always directed at her.

His face was covered in sweat and blood, his white shirt stained red, his arm seemed to be broken, there was a gash above his right eyebrow, his cheeks red like Poppy's, and bruises on his neck. His shirt and cardigan were ripped and his hair was a mess.

She lifted her free hand to his hair and ran her fingers through it, pulling it away from his face so she could look into his eyes. He closed his eyes, loving the feeling of her small, gentle hands in his hair. She takes a wet wipe out of the first-aid kit next to them and gently wipes his face, free of blood and sweat.

"Where's Poppy?" he rasps, opening his eyes to look at her.

"She's fine, she's not as wounded as you are." she replies.

"And Joan and Arthur,"

"Jail,"

"Good…" he smiles.

"Even when you're beaten and near death you're still beautiful." she murmurs after a few minutes of silence, running her knuckles down the side of his face slowly.

"Even when your face is stained with tears and your hair is matted you're still gorgeous." he smirks, raising his hand to her hair, running his fingers through it to work out the knots.

Mara blushes and looks down at their entwined fingers in her lap.

"I thought I lost you." she sighs.

"You can't lose me, Mara." he smiles.

"Never leave me again," she whispers, kissing his forehead and resting hers on his. "Please."

"Never." he promises, looking into her eyes.

"I love-" she starts shakily.

"You." he finishes.

He closes the gap between them and kisses her. She could taste the blood in his mouth when he granted her wish to be let in. She ignored it and ran her hand through his hair as he leaned up on his elbows, trying to get closer to her. Her returning his deep affection gave him strength and he felt as if he was healed already. All the memories and beatings washed away. The screams from Poppy, the shouts from Arthur, and the scolding from Joan all vanished from his brain as he kissed Mara with such passion it made her gasp. They pull away when they needed air and Mara stares down at him, breathing heavily.

"Never leave me again." he sighs, running his free hand down her face.

"Never," she shook her head and kissed him again.

Jerome and Mara both knew everything was going to be okay. Joan and Arthur couldn't bother them anymore. Poppy and Jerome were going to be safe and free of harm. Mara and Jerome were finally together and nothing could break them apart. And that's why the words they said will rain true for years to come…

_Never Leave Me Again_

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**Proverbs 21:17**

**"Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich."**

**Love y'all!**

**-Rachel**


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